Bertha Dudde emeBooklet 009

You - between two WorldsPart 2

The human being’s struggle with the satanic spirit ofthe World

A selection of Revelations from God,received through the 'Inner Word'

by Bertha Dudde

You - between two WorldsPart 2

is booklet contains a selection of Divine Revelations, received throughthe Inner Word by Bertha Dudde as promised by John 14.21: ``Whoeverhas My commands and obeys them, he is the one who loves Me. He who

loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I too will love him and showMyself to him.''

∗ ∗ ∗ ∗ ∗ ∗ ∗

e revelations are non-denominational, they do not intend to attractmembers of any Christian religious affiliation nor to recruit members into

any Christian religious affiliation.e only purpose of these revelations is to make God's Word accessible to

all people, as it is God's Will.

Only complete and unaltered messages with references may be copied andtranslated.

Published by friends of the New Revelationwww.bertha-dudde.info

On the internet you find reference addresses to obtain hardcoverthemebooklets and books at:

http://www.bertha-dudde.info/english/eadress.html

ii

Contents

The human being’s struggle with the satanic spirit of the World 1BD 4877 Unattainabili of God .... Recognising His fundamentalnature .... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1BD 5796 Overcoming matter .... Spiritual kingdom .... . . . . . . . . 3BD 3712 Prudence and gentleness .... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4BD 5565 Confused thinking - Spiritual adversi .... Free will .... . . 6BD 6158 Change of nature only from within .... . . . . . . . . . . . 7BD 6194 Serious admonitions .... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9BD 6329 Striving towards the goal .... God's help .... . . . . . . . . . 10BD 6340 Means of grace .... Walking with God .... . . . . . . . . . . 11BD 3716 Danger of idleness .... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13BD 5172 Earthly life - illusive life .... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14BD 6338 God's constant care for the human being .... . . . . . . . . 16BD 1933a Instincts of preliminary stages determine character .... . . 17BD 1933b Instincts of preliminary stages determine character ....Heredi .... Disposition .... Parents .... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18BD 5233 Dei ing the beings into children .... . . . . . . . . . . . . 19BD 5136 Satan's power .... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21BD 5825 No one will enter the kingdom of heaven who payshomage to the world .... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23BD 5243 Forgiveness .... Atonement .... Justice .... (Law of cause andeffect) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24BD 5647 `Whoever is loved by God ....' . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26BD 3697 Human commandments .... Neighbourly love .... God'scommandment .... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28

iii

BD 5605 Awakening the dead through God's Word .... . . . . . . . . 29BD 5102 School of the spirit .... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31BD 7494 Love is life itself .... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32BD 6547 Mere conformists will be unsuccessful .... . . . . . . . . . 34BD 7496 Jesus as leader .... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36BD 8865 Comforting Fatherly Words .... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37

Who was Bertha Dudde? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39

iv

The human being’s struggle with the satanicspirit of the World

BD 4877 received 09.04.1950

Unattainabili of God ....Recognising His fundamental nature ....

No human spirit will be able to grasp Me as long as it has not unitedwith Me, with My eternal Father-Spirit. And this union with Me is an actwhich necessitates utmost willingness to enter into My will, thus it meansconforming to My fundamental nature. Only what has become as one withMe is able to recognise Me, otherwise it is mere faith and not completerealisation. e human being's spirit certainly has the abili of insight butnever by itself, only in uni with Me. It is a spark of My eternal Father-Spirit, it is part of Me which came forth from Me and keeps in permanentcontact with Me, but only the human being's will brings it to a state whereit can function. And this will has to subordinate itself to Me, then thespiritual spark can become active in the person. But it can o en take a longtime until the human being's will awakens the spirit in himself, and thistime is lost for eterni .

e human being's earthly progress in the state of ignorance is futile for thesoul, as then it will only live for the world, it is not yet able to understandthe meaning and purpose of its earthly life, it has not yet got in touchwith its inner spirit and is completely blind. Only the awakening of thespiritual spark in the person will safeguard the soul's higher development,its maturing. For the awakened spirit will persuade the soul to turn awayfrom the world and listen to the spirit's voice, and then there will be adawning, the darkness will be dispersed by light .... and the spirit will edithe soul about My Being, about My working and My continuous care forMy living creation. en the person's spirit will guide him into truth, it willconvey knowledge to him which he cannot receive from an external source,since it would be presented to him incomprehensibly or he would not beable to grasp it. en the spirit will persistently urge the soul towards aunification with Me since, being part of Me, it also wants to draw the soulunto itself; hence unification with Me should also become the soul's aim.

1

e human being will only start to appreciate My fundamental naturewhen he has reached a certain degree of maturi , even then he will neverbe able to fathom it in its full profundi . He cannot grasp it as a humanbeing, and even a being of light is still very distant from Me, althoughpermeated by My strength and therefore blissfully happy. It is impossibleto completely ascertain My fundamental nature, for I outshine all otherbeings of light and strength and therefore I Am incomprehensible to everybeing, even when it has achieved the highest degree of perfection. If it werepossible to comprehend Me, I would not be Infinite, neither in perfectionnor in power. Yet precisely this incomprehensibili fills a being of light withbliss, so that it is able to look up to Me and love Me ever more profoundly,so that it will constantly strive towards Me with longing, and will alwaysreceive fulfilment of its desire. e fact that I Am unattainable to the beingwill intensi its love because, in awareness of My unattainabili , it willregard My love as the greatest gi .

Yet on the other hand, My living creation is inseparably connected to Me.... Its self-inflicted imperfection, its thoroughly contradictory state to Myfundamental nature does not limit My love for it and eternally will notinduce Me to disown it, thus to separate Myself from it .... Irrespectiveof how unattainable I Am to the being, it is nevertheless connected toMe, it belongs to Me, because it originated from My strength and thusis a fundamental part of Myself. And this togetherness shall now find itsculmination in the conscious uni on the part of the being. By striving toreach Me it should put itself into the state of bliss because, in order to feelMy love and experience it as bliss, the being's will must be totally inclinedtowards Me. ere must be no opposition in the being whatsoever. It hasto want to reach Me in order to be li ed up by Me, and this li ing up, thisdrawing-to-Me, is a never-ending state in eterni ....

e being will never reach the final goal, yet it will constantly come closerto Me, this certain is still incomprehensible to you as human beingson earth. However, the being's bliss rests in its continuous desire andfulfilment .... A completely satisfied being would no longer be able to feeldesire and therefore also miss the elation of fulfilment. But I want Mychildren to strive for Me at all times, I constantly want to give to them andtherefore also want to be constantly desired .... And thus, as the final goal, I

2

will stimulate the beings into utmost love and yearning, but always remainabove My living creations, not due to lack of love but because of My greaterthan great love, for I want to bestow never-ending joy, because My love cannever cease in all eterni ....

Amen

BD 5796 received 26.10.1953

Overcoming matter ....Spiritual kingdom ....

As long as your thoughts and wishes merely apply to the world and itscommodities you will hardly inherit My kingdom, for My kingdom isnot of this world .... My kingdom can only be attained by relinquishingeverything you humans still find desirable .... My kingdom necessitates theovercoming of matter, you will only be able to liberate yourselves from theform and enter My kingdom if you detach yourselves from everything thatbelongs to My adversary. is material world is his realm, albeit he has noinfluence over matter as such ....

But the greater is his influence over people, who shelter the spiritual essenceas soul within themselves, which has now reached the stage of developmentwhere it can escape his dominion, where it can release itself from everyexternal form with its correct use of will. en he will exert his influence toexcess by attaching a person to matter in order to direct their will wronglyso that he will strive again for something he had long overcome already.

e material world is your greatest test of will, for you should renounceit, you should voluntarily do without everything you consider desirable inthe course of your earthly life, you should strive for the spiritual kingdom,thus you should choose and decide for My kingdom or the kingdom of Myadversary.

He will tempt you with his commodities .... but consider that these goodsare transient, that they by themselves can perish or that they will have tobe relinquished by you at the hour of your death .... You cannot hold on tothem forever, sooner or later you will irrevocably lose them .... ink of thisand therefore start early by producing, working and acquiring possessionswhich cannot be taken away from you, everlasting possessions whose value

3

will only be truly recognised in eterni , a er the death of the body, whichthen will be the soul's wealth and make it infinitely happy.

Your longing for matter makes you blind for spiritual possessions, you areunable to recognise them for what they are because your thoughts are onlyfocussed on earthly things leaving you insensitive to spiritual currents, forMy kingdom is not of this world, but My kingdom will come to everyonewho desires it .... erefore detach yourselves from what prevents yourentry into My kingdom .... Free yourselves from the longing for earthlypossessions, go without and abstain for as long as you live on earth inorder to then receive in abundance My possessions of love in the spiritualkingdom ....

Amen

BD 3712 received 13.03.1946

Prudence and gentleness ....

Be prudent and gentle .... and you will be very successful if you want towork for Me and My kingdom .... And if you want to give My Word topeople you have to pass it on just as I have given it to you, you have tooffer it with love .... Love, however, is always the same; it expresses itselfin gentleness and patience, in willingness to bestow happiness, in selflessgiving. us, anyone who offers My Word has to feel the inner aspiration tomake other people happy and do so with a joyful heart, and if he urges theother person it has to be in a most gentle manner, he must want to bestowhappiness with an innermost sinceri . If he then is eager, his eagerness iscommendable, but not if he meets with resistance and prevails and thenuses harsh words which are not helpful to My cause. He always has toconsider himself My representative and thus always display a loving naturetoo, and if fervour takes hold of him it has to be a righteous one which doesnot apply to other people but to falsehood and error, which he fights againstand thus seeks to eliminate. e results of satanic work should and can bethe object of utter disgust and contempt and also need to be denouncedaccordingly, but the Gospel from the heavens has to be given to people withgentleness and love or it will be ineffective. And thus you have to carry outyour work with utmost prudence even when other people's spiritual state

4

disgusts you, when their resistance tests your patience considerably. Forwhat you proclaim is taught by love, hence love also has to express itself,and the bearer's loving nature has to be seen. Even so, you should speakon behalf of Me and My teaching with all firmness or the task I requireyou to do would not be work. You have to work diligently everywhere andwith every human being .... You have to encourage them to act kindly andportray this as the only true service to God which is pleasing to Me andresults in blessings and grace from above. My Word only teaches love, andwhen you encourage other people accordingly you are already spreadingMy Word .... Whether the human being's faithfulness to the offered Wordresults in a contact with Me entirely depends on his will, but a teachinggiven with gentleness is not without effect, it is more likely to impress thanoverzealous upholding of spiritual values which is not yet comprehensibleto the other person because he has no love. Gentleness and prudence areimportant factors when spreading My teaching of love ....

However, if another person's arrogant spirit confronts you then you knowthat My adversary's spirit speaks through him .... which certainly calls forstronger words .... but in that case I Myself will put the words into yourmouth, providing you quietly call upon Me for help to deal with peoplewho carry this spirit in themselves. Because they have to be treated quitedifferently, they need to be disturbed from their arrogant contentment andguided into another way of thinking. And gentle speech will be of no useto them. But you will clearly know in your heart if or when there is still apossibili to change such people, and if you work for Me and My kingdomin association with Me you will also be enlightened by My spirit, who willput the words into your mouth enabling you to speak without hesitationas prompted by your heart. Prudence and gentleness and sincere prayer toMe will definitely lead to success, because then I will bless your work forMy kingdom on this earth and in eterni ....

Amen

5

BD 5565 received 26.12.1952

Confused thinking - Spiritual adversi ....Free will ....

People's thinking has become confused. And spiritual adversi has tobe understood such that they are without realisation, that they are farremoved from the truth and therefore also distant from Me, because theylive without love, since love inevitably unites them with Me and the truth.How else could they be helped if not through constantly admonishing andmotivating them to love .... But they cannot be commanded to love, it canonly be presented to them as the most important commandment which hasto be fulfilled without fail if the human being wants to reach his goal onearth. e human being has to know that he will not even move one stepforward without love, yet it cannot be forcibly demanded or it would notbe love, at best it would just be an act intending to feign love.

You humans should not forget that love is something divine, and that I gaveyou the commandment of love in order to show you the path towards thedeification of your nature .... But by no means will I ever exercise the leastamount of compulsion on you which, however, is implied in the true senseof the word `commandment'. And thus I allow you to decide everything,you may exercise self-determination; I can only instruct you such that youwill take the right path of your own accord .... And therefore I constantlyendeavour to guide people into right thinking, to instruct them correctly,to convey My Word to them through servants who are wholeheartedlydevoted to Me, to explain the pros and cons of everything so that theythemselves will make the right decision and carry out what will lead themto the goal .... so that they will live a life of love and become again what theyhad been in the beginning. Yet I meet with unyielding resistance .... Peopledon't accept My loving instructions, their thinking is so confused that theyare no longer capable of understanding the simple, clear information aboutthe correlations .... and neither do they want to understand them ....

My loving Words bypass their ears and don't reach their hearts, and thestrength of My Word can no longer be effective on people .... e spiritualadversi is huge because people's will has to remain free and they are nolonger motivated from within; they have no desire for correct explanations,

6

they are comfortable in their spiritual darkness, they don't desire any light.... and if the light comes to them they won't let its rays enter their hearts,they turn away and towards deceptive lights which flare up everywherealong the path .... And full of compassion I look upon My living creationsunto which I would like to bestow happiness and who will not acceptanything from My hands. I see them wander about, each one on otherpaths but not entering the path which is indeed leading uphill but withcertain to Me .... I also see those who are looking for Me but who will notaccept advice where I can be found, who have to travel many paths beforethey will find the right one .... I would like to spare all of them their wastedjourneys, I would like to make their ascent to Me easier, I would like toprovide everyone with a guide ....

Yet I can only every call to them with enticing Words: Come to Me, all yethat labour, and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest .... I can only callbut not force them to take the right path .... ey don't listen to My call oflove because they can't recognise My voice as long as they are without love.And this is what I describe as spiritual adversi , the fact that there is indeedhelp and that it is more than abundantly bestowed upon you by Me, butthat you humans don't want to accept it and therefore determine the endyourselves which you are approaching; I Am able to help you, I also wantto help you but you yourselves have to want to be helped .... For your willis free and shall forever determine your fate ....

Amen

BD 6158 received 08.01.1955

Change of nature only from within ....

Nothing external has a beneficial effect on your inner life, no formalitiescan help your soul to mature and lead it to perfection .... Your change ofnature can only be accomplished from within, this is why you humans mustfrequently withdraw into solitude in order to take stock of yourselves andremove whatever is spoiling you, whatever imperfections you still harbourwithin yourselves .... External sources can certainly draw your attention toconducting this psychological work, you can be taught how to achieve it,what you ought to observe .... what you must avoid because it is harmful

7

and what you should do to become perfect .... but you must accomplishit yourselves and only by means of detaching yourselves from everythingexternal even if you are in the midst of the world and forced to fulfil yourduties. Yet this psychological work has to be carried out simultaneouslybecause it is entirely independent of your occupation, for it concerns yourinner nature, your faults and bad habits, it concerns the human being'sinner life, his thinking, volition and conduct which .... even if it is directedin a worldly way .... ought to emanate love, otherwise a transformation ofpersonali cannot be spoken of.

Hence your psychological work has to consist of refining your thinkingand inclinations and of directing them towards divine goals; you alwayshave to make an effort to live a life of unselfishness, selflessness, gentlenessand patience, of peacefulness .... You have to develop all good qualitieswithin yourselves and expel bad thoughts and attributes .... And all thisrequires the sincere will to live correctly before God .... It need not becomeoutwardly obvious, that is, it should not be outwardly displayed .... yet alife in accordance with God's will also always affects your fellow humanbeings, it stimulates imitation and will always be more effective than manyspeeches or formal customs which do not yet vouch for an inner change ofattitude.

A person can only change if he takes serious stock of himself by thinkingabout his shortcomings and faults and resolves to improve himself. Andthis inner change has to be undertaken by every person himself if he wantsto reach his goal of becoming perfect. e resolve also has to be followed bythe deed or the will is not in earnest .... And from this you can realise againthat the attainment of beatitude is not determined by the denominationbut only ever by the human being's will to kindle love within himself whichtotally transforms him, which turns all bad attributes into good ones andwhich therefore is the only means of becoming perfect .... but which canbe practised by all people, irrespective of which denomination they belongto .... All denominations, however, teach love .... this is why all of themcan lead to perfection, yet no denomination can guarantee this perfection.... only the human being can achieve it by the serious work of improvinghimself ....

Amen

8

BD 6194 received 21.02.1955

Serious admonitions ....

Time and again I admonish you to detach yourselves from the world .... Yetyou humans attach yourselves to it ever more, you progressively chase a erearthly possessions, you increasingly indulge yourselves in the pleasures oflife, and the spiritual kingdom becomes ever more distant for you, whichcan never be taken possession of alongside the physical world. And thatis your ruin, the fact that you hand yourselves over to the lord who drawsyour souls down so that you get ever more entangled in his nets of lies,which are gold-plated and therefore not recognised for what they are ....Your desire for the pleasures of life will result in your death .... For thisdesire is placed into your heart by My adversary, he impels you to increaseyour craving of abandoning yourselves to worldly pleasures .... he inflamesyour physical longings into seeking and also finding fulfilment in sin .... Hedispels all good thoughts, selfish love is being fanned into greatest passion,people only belong to him alone for they no longer question whether theylive according to My will, to please Me .... e have fallen prey to the worldand consequently to the one who is lord of this world ....

Dense darkness is spread across earth because no spiritual ray can penetrateit, and in this darkness My adversary has an easy game .... he capturescountless souls and prepares their fate which they are incapable of realisingin their blindness .... He will certainly give them whatever they desire inearthly life, yet their fate a er the death of their body will be a dreadful one.... For then he will take full possession of them and render them powerlessand unable to release themselves from his control, and they will have topay for their short lifetime on earth in comfort with a dreadful destinyin eterni .... Yet regardless of how seriously it is presented to people,regardless of how urgently they are admonished and warned against theenemy of their souls .... they won't listen and steadfastly keep their eyes onthe world, which attracts them with its radiance.

And sin gets out of hand, for what the human being cannot accrue auto-matically he tries to gain by wrongful means. Nothing is sacred to him,neither his neighbour's possessions nor his life if only he can improve hissituation, if only he can derive an advantage to serve his body .... And with

9

an attitude like that the light cannot possibly penetrate his heart, he livesin deepest darkness and feels comfortable therein. It is a time of depravi ,a time of sin in which My adversary celebrates his triumphs, in which Mymessengers of light gain little influence and only the powers from beloware successful .... My adversary is reaping a rich harvest .... and the time isapproaching its end .... e work in My vineyard is needed more than everso that people who do not completely submit to his influence can still besaved .... whose souls have not yet fallen prey to him ....

Amen

BD 6329 received 09.08.1955

Striving towards the goal ....God's help ....

Everything shall serve you towards maturing, and thus every day canenable you to ascend in your development, providing you always rememberthat God directs your destiny, and that everything happens as is best foryour soul. Admittedly, the body will o en have to suffer; your life willo en seem troubled, worries will o en oppress you and you will becomehesitant and disheartened .... Yet nothing happens to you by chance, andyour Father in heaven knows everything and therefore also knows yoursituation, because He has predetermined it Himself to help you to progress.But you can improve or worsen your situation yourselves, for you only needto take the right path in order to find help, just as resentfulness and aversionon your part will always make your situation feel worse and you will suffertwice as much because you will grumble ....

Yet there is One Who is always waiting for your call because He wants tohelp you, but first He wants to hear your call in order to then demonstrateHis love for you .... is One wants to help and can help you, but He expectsyou to believe in His love and His power. You should always acknowledgeHim as a God of love, even if you have to suffer or if His love for you is notobviously recognisable .... Only love moves Him into action .... and onlylove motivates Him to treat people harshly at times, so that they do not goastray again for eternities. But anyone who entrusts himself to His greaterthan great love will soon be led out of affliction, since God asks for no

10

more than a person's utter devotion to Him .... en he will very soon befree from all worries and suffering, since God's love will remove them fromhim again once he has established or strengthened the right relationshipwith God .... en their purpose will have been achieved and another levelwill have been reached; then the soul will have moved a step up again,and then a period of peace will ensue to serve the human being for innerreflection .... for he should constantly strive to ascend, he must not tire, hemust steadfastly keep his eyes on the goal, the achievement of which is hisearth task ....

And if his striving comes to a halt then discord will instantly come aboutwhich will be to remind him of his earthly task .... Yet irrespective of whathappens to you, it is certainly only for the best for your soul, and you willbe able to overcome everything with the help of the One, Who carried thecross on your behalf, Who died for you on the cross .... Call upon Him inevery spiritual and earthly affliction .... He knows about your suffering, heknows about all human failings and adversities and is willing to help youat all times, and through your call upon Jesus Christ you will be connectedwith Him again, you will walk the path to Jesus and with Him .... and thispath will safely lead you to your goal ....

Amen

BD 6340 received 27.08.1955

Means of grace ....Walking with God ....

As yet it is still a time of grace .... I still try to persuade you humans byvarious means to turn around or to lead you into perfection .... only yourwill must not be entirely in opposition to Mine. If you humans rebel againstMe, against your destiny and everything that is still intended to benefityour soul, then My means of grace will be ineffective, and then your life willalso be at risk .... the life of the soul .... for then it will succumb to spiritualdeath. You humans ought to fit in with My will, you ought to realise thatyou are powerless by yourselves and passively surrender to the One Whorules over heaven and earth .... Only through such passive devotion willyou improve your earthly life .... and then also allow the means of grace

11

take effect and achieve progress for your soul .... It is the time of the end andtherefore a time of great adversi because I still want to help people turnaround or achieve perfection .... It truly would not be love on My part wereI to leave you to your destiny and thus provide you with an unrestrained,carefree earthly life without misery and tribulation, for then your soulswould definitely go astray, since the inner drive for ascent is only present invery few people .... I must support you because I love you, but I can onlygrant My support in a way which I regard as a blessing for your soul ....by being strict with you in order to bring you to your senses, since you areclose to the end and haste is essential ....

Yet every person can improve his earthly fate himself by walking his earthlypath in unison with Me, by joining Me more closely and thereby makingevery downfall impossible .... And then I will also guide him such thathis earthly life will be more bearable .... For then he will no longer needharsh means of help because I will have won him over for Myself .... Yetas long as the human being still resists Me he only feels the burden andnot My help .... However, My love also applies to him and tries to win himover, only it uses different means which are nevertheless means of grace,because they only intend to achieve My living creations'return to Me ....But how insignificant are these sufferings and adversities compared to thetorments of a renewed banishment into solid matter .... which, however,will irrevocably happen to you humans if you don't bow down to My will inthese last days before the end .... rough suffering and adversities I wantto achieve nothing other than your return to Me, Who can and will helpyou at all times ....

You labour and are heavily laden .... Yet you know One Who calls youto Himself .... Follow His call `Come unto Me, all ye that labour, and areheavily laden, and I will give you rest ....'And there is nothing I will not giveyou if only it benefits your soul. Join the group of My children, don't keepapart in wilfulness or defiance but come to Me as well, you who are stilldistant from Me, and relinquish your resistance. For travelling the pathwith Me is truly easier and more pleasant since I will guide you such thatyou will effortlessly reach your goal .... but My path leads away from theworld .... For My kingdom is not of this world .... yet it is your true homewhich will receive you when you have to leave the earth one day .... Only

12

a short stretch of the path is still ahead of you but it is enough for youto reach the right goal .... But if you hand yourselves over to Me and Myguidance without resistance you will not regret that you followed the OneWho is the Father of all of you, Who wants to guide His children to eternalbeatitude ....

Amen

BD 3716 received 17.03.1946

Danger of idleness ....

You should not give yourselves to laziness during the time of the last days,you should not stay inactive and indifferently await the end, but insteadyou should work tirelessly, spiritually as well as earthly, where necessary.For your soul only benefits from activi and never from a state of rest.Moreover, the end time will necessitate vigorous activi as a result ofsevere hardship which will force the human being to participate in everykind of work. For only those who betray Me, who have completely desertedMe, will have a good living standard. ose who abide by Me will have tostruggle with acute hardship, worldly too; nevertheless, with My help theywill be able to overcome it if they work diligently. But I will keep themoccupied until the end, I do not want them to stay inactive and wait forMy help since I do not want them to run the danger of deserting Me bycomparing their life with the life of the atheists and begin to falter in theirfaith in Me. Diligent activi will protect them from misguided thoughtsbecause activi is life, and as long as a task is performed for the benefit ofother people it is also a blessing for the human soul. And the difficulties ofthe time will necessitate supportive action for other people, My Own willhave to be very industrious, and even the representatives of My Word, Myservants on earth, are not exempt, and I will bless everyone's efforts andremove their worst hardship although it will seem to the world as if thehuman being helps himself .... since My help only shows itself visibly to theworld when the strength of faith is intended to become evident.

However, every person will be able to work and aspire spiritually in spiteof utmost demands on his physical strength before the end .... If he aspirestowards Me, My spiritual strength will carry out the person's work and

13

his thoughts will be able to freely wander into the spiritual realm, he willbe able to be in contact with Me at any time, his physical labour will notprevent him from working for the kingdom of God where appropriate.For I will give everyone a place where he will be able to work physicallyand spiritually in accordance with his abilities. Besides, time appears topass more quickly to an active person, whereas the inactive human beingextends his own time due to his idleness. Idleness does not lead to any kindof success, neither spiritually nor earthly .... the lord of the underworld takespossession of a lazy human being; he tempts him with worldly promisesand diverts his attention from his real task on earth. And, because he wantsto improve his life, the idle person follows him only too willingly. And Iseriously warn My Own against idleness .... I will bless every deed whichis not a blatant unkindness, and My blessing will result in constant helpduring spiritual as well as earthly hardship. erefore, remain tirelesslyactive; remember that there is not much time until the end and that anykind of activi is life. Don't end the experience of life before its time, andalso use the flow of vitali correctly, then the spiritual strength will alsobe increased, you will persevere to the end and need not fear adversitiesbecause then you will be living in accordance with My will in this respecttoo and will always be able to be certain of My protection, My love and Mystrength ....

Amen

BD 5172 received 17.07.1951

Earthly life - illusive life ....

Earthly life is but an illusive existence. As soon as you humans realise thisyou will have reached the point of ascent. en you will live consciously,working towards the life which is true existence, which only starts whenyour body, your soul's material shell, passes away and the soul can riseunimpeded into the spiritual kingdom. Everything that arises on earthbefore your eyes, everything that is visible to you, is merely temporarilyformed spiritual substance which has to serve its purpose on earth as matterto facilitate spiritual maturing. And earthly life itself is also a mere physicalfunction as long as the soul within you still has no understanding of what

14

it was, is and should be .... If the soul does not acquire this understandingduring its earthly life it will indeed believe even stronger in the reali oflife, it will only regard earthly life as significant and thus strive to live aslong and as well as possible on earth; and this desire will only diminish themoment it becomes enlightened, for then it will become conscious of thereal life and earthly life will fade to the same extent as real life becomesmore valuable.

Only then will the soul be able to distinguish between appearance andreali , only then will it live consciously .... It received life to enable it toprove its will during an illusive existence, to enable it to be active duringa certain stage of strength, where it can utilise the energy of life in aGod-pleasing way, and thereby become entitled in real life to receive anabundance of strength and use it in accordance with God's will. us ithas to pass a test of life first to demonstrate that it is suitable to receiveunlimited strength. For only the utilisation of this strength is the actuallife, where the soul can be creatively active and also carry out extensiveredemption work. If it fails the test of life, if it uses the energy of life at itsdisposal wrongly, it will forfeit the supply of strength in the true life, whichit then would also use wrongly if the soul were to receive an unconditionalflow of strength.

It must have attained a certain degree of maturi during earthly life, whichwill then make it a suitable recipient and steward of strength in the spiritualkingdom. And for this it received its earthly existence. Yet this is usuallyregarded as an end in itself, not as a means to an end and is therefore alsoused wrongly .... it is deemed to be the only desirable life, even though ev-ery person knows that he himself cannot prolong this life by one day whenhis hour has come. And precisely this should make him realise the worth-lessness and transience of what seems extremely important to him. As anintelligent human being he should make provisions for `a erwards'and notbe satisfied with things which are subject to the law of transience. Earthlylife if but an illusive life, something on loan, which can be taken away againat any time .... But the human being should manage borrowed wealth well,he should use it such that it will earn substantial interest, not in an earthly-materialistic sense but he should use it to gain spiritual wealth, then theenergy of life will be used correctly and the test of life will have been passed

15

successfully, and then the person will be suitable for the spiritual life, forthe true life, which will last eternally ....

Amen

BD 6338 received 22.08.1955

God's constant care for the human being ....

How o en do I come close to you humans, how o en do I speak to you,how o en do I pull you back from danger and offer you My guidance onyour path of life .... But rarely do you recognise Me. My obvious guidanceis regarded by you as mere coincidence and My Words do not reach yourhearts, you are unable to recognise Me because you have set you sightsbeyond Me towards the world. Yet My care pursues you. And even if youlive within in the midst of worldly commotion I will nevertheless not leaveyour side, I will just wait for the moment when you notice Me so that youvoluntarily place yourselves under My protection .... so that, amid the joysof the world, you still feel your hardship and look for the One Who pursuesyou and Who can help you. I will not stop revealing Myself to people ....Even if success is very slight, if it is scarcely perceptible .... I take notice ofthe faintest willingness to approach Me, and then I will never ever leave hisside again ....

My love motivates Me into not abandoning you, even if you spend yourearthly life in utmost indifference and don't try to find a bond with Me. YetI do not force your willingness to hear Me, and this is why My Words areso so and unobtrusive that you can easily not hear them if you don't takeany notice of Me. ey don't sound as loud as the voice of the world whichtherefore finds your full attention. And because your will shall turn to Meof its own accord I will never show Myself conspicuously but neither will Ileave you without small contacts, I gently push you onto paths where you,lonely and weak, look around for help in order to then be able to emergeand offer My help to you .... I do not exclude anyone of you humans as longas he has not yet found and recognised Me, and since there is not muchtime le until the end people will have to cover shorter paths and these arefar more arduous and laborious, because I want them to need and requestMy guidance.

16

Strokes of fate will increase; people will still have to endure much adversiand misery because they are further removed from Me than ever, even ifI pursue them wherever they go .... Until the end of their life I will notabandon them, and My blows will become ever more severe in order toshake them out of their indifference, yet their reactions are not determinedby Me, nevertheless, one day they will determine their fate in the spiritualkingdom .... For their will is and shall remain free, and even My greaterthan great love does not determine a resolve which chooses death althoughit would have been able to acquire eternal life ....

Amen

BD 1933a received 25.05.1941

Instincts of preliminary stages determine character ....

e current stage of human existence is more or less the same as thestate of the spiritual substance within every external form, namely thesubstance will always have to fight the oppositions which are most powerfulwithin itself, therefore the human being has to fight against evil instinctswithin himself during his earthly existence. ese are exceptionally welldeveloped the more opportuni the spiritual essence has had to indulgeitself during a preliminary stage. ese instincts of the preliminary stageshave le their mark on the spiritual essence, i.e. the human being hasto fight particularly resolutely against such instincts .... while the humanbeing who previously had completed his task willingly and consequently isalready in a certain state of maturi will enjoy an easier life.

e will to serve liberates the substance correspondingly even while itis still surrounded by a form. And this now submissive substance willlive in a form which outwardly also shows the being's willingness. Hencethe soul's degree of maturi can be assessed by its external shape. In theembodiment as human being only those substances of soul unite who sharethe same nature; but accordingly will also be the fight on earth becausemany substances of soul united and influence the being in much the sameway as in the previous form. e sooner the being can learn to overcome theimperfections the less it will resist and can already become patient, willingand active during the preliminary stages .... However, if it holds on to an

17

instinct within itself it will also have to suffer it as a human being and thisdetermines his character ....

Amen

BD 1933b received 29.05.1941

Instincts of preliminary stages determine character ....Heredi ....Disposition ....Parents ....

e human being's course of life corresponds to his nature, i.e. faults andimperfections adhere to his soul from which it should free itself duringits earthly life. ese faults and imperfections are not the same in everyperson because every substance of soul has previously lived in a differentexternal form in which certain good or bad peculiarities had developedto a greater or lesser degree. Consequently people's nature will be quitedifferent too and likewise require different methods of teaching to promotewhat is good in them and to overcome what can be regarded as inadequateor bad. It would now be completely wrong to assume that all souls areformed alike at the moment of their embodiment on earth. ere arein fact many differences and the human being assigns these differencesbetween the beings to `heredi '. Outwardly it may indeed appear as if thechildren would have to accept a certain burden during the course of theirlife, namely peculiarities of their being which can either be helpful or ahindrance to their spiritual development but for which they could not beheld responsible, because they reason that their `genetic make-up'is nottheir own fault and that it therefore requires more strength to combat andto overcome these inborn defects.

e human being has to combat all his defects and improve himself toacquire maturi of soul. And if specific instincts are predominant in himhe should understand that human nature is not determined by parentaldisposition but that the human being had allowed precisely those weak-nesses and imperfections to become part of his nature during the infinitelymany embodiments before the human stage, during which the being feltcomfortable and did nothing to liberate itself from such faults and flaws.

18

And now on earth it may well have the will to do so but it has a certainweakness. It considers its deficiency as its just right because it regards themas its inheritance without fault of its own. And yet it was its own volition tojoin people whose nature resembles its own during the time of its earthlylife.

Precisely this similari of nature had attracted the soul seeking incar-nation, consequently one generally speaks of heredi even though thephysical parents had no share in the nature of the souls in their care duringthe time on earth. Hence every soul has to deal with the task of higherdevelopment itself. is task can never be done by another human being,not even by the physical parents. Likewise, the parents are not responsiblefor the disposition of their children even though it may appear as if thechildren have to endure parental heredi . Every being is responsible foritself, although the human being as such should be educated to improvehimself as long as he is still in the care of his physical parents, because everyperson has to accomplish the work on his soul himself otherwise he willnot be able to liberate himself from his past guilt of sins ....

Amen

BD 5233 received 12.10.1951

Dei ing the beings into children ....

It is a law of eterni that I rule over all spirits in heaven and on earth,over all beings in the kingdom of light and darkness, over everything Ihave created out of love, wisdom and fullness of strength; it is a law thateverything is subject to Me and thus I Am the Lord, Whose power is infiniteand Who can just as easily destroy what His will had called into being .... Yetwisdom has always been as much a part of creation as love, and therefore Ido not destroy arbitrarily, rather, I let all beings under My rule exist foreverbut try to change them into beings who can create and shape in unison withMe, who thus become My image, for I Am imbued with immense love forMy creations. I want to be able to work in these beings Myself, so that theybecome aware of their divini and eternally live in radiant bliss. I Am aGod of love and approach all My living creations with love; but I also know

19

of each one's willingness to accept My love, and thus My love affects livingcreations accordingly.

Where there is love the being comes to meet Me, but where love is absentit will turn away from Me and My love will remain ineffective, i.e. it willnot demand a response. But as soon as the living creation in a state of freewill, as a human being, looks for Me, strives towards Me, thus longs forits Lord and Creator, it will have reached the stage of love. en My lovecan shine into this being and it will find a response .... e human beingwill contact Me consciously, he will be knowingly subject to Me, and thenthe transformation can start, that is, the education into a being like Me,the deification of the works which had come forth from My hands as worksbut which shall become `divine children'.... which, however, can only beachieved by the human being's free will itself. Anyone who comprehendsthis enigma .... the development into Gods from emerged works of Mymight .... already belongs to those where this process is happening, for thenthe person has a certain degree of awareness which, again, is a sign of divinestrength that is already inherent in the human being.

And this degree of awareness will increase as the process of transformationcontinues, as he gains more divine attributes by transforming himself tolove, for the Divine is and always will be love .... e beatitude of a divinebeing, of My image, consists of the fact that it is permeated by light andstrength .... that it has an abundance of wisdom and might, which it willalways use in the spirit of My love, because it has become pure love itself,or it would remain without light and strength. A divine being is a perfectbeing which lacks nothing .... Every restriction, every limitation, is a sign ofimperfection. Yet whatever degree the being has achieved .... its awarenesswill always increase in proportion to its growing love, for both go invariablyhand in hand. us only what was caused by love signifies spiritual ascent,for this is also accompanied by understanding, by knowledge, which isaccepted by the human being's heart and intellect. Loving activi is theladder to the pinnacle which the human being climbs step by step as hechanges himself into love and thereby conforms more and more to thedivine fundamental nature.

e fundamental law of eterni rests in the fact that love was the strengthwhich brought everything into being, thus it enabled the act of creation,

20

but likewise it is also the strength which deifies the creation, which is aprocess My living creations have to accomplish themselves .... and are ableto do so, because the fundamental strength rests within them as a sparkwhich only needs to be ignited in order to display the same omnipotencedemonstrated by My fundamental nature. My living creations are able todei themselves through love ....

You humans will not understand this phrase until you have reached adegree of awareness as a result of your life of love .... when all correlationswill reveal themselves like a radiant light, when your spirit is enlightenedwhich, however, can only happen through love. en you will steadilyapproach My fundamental nature, then I will no longer be your Creator,your Lord, to Whom you are subject, but I will be your Father Who lovinglydraws you, His children, to His heart, Who will find His will in you againand experience an indescribable happiness, which will also shine on you,then the law will have fulfilled itself which is the foundation of the entirematerial and spiritual creation ....

Amen

BD 5136 received 24. - 25.5.1951

Satan's power ....

e one who wants to ruin you only has great power if you grant him thispower yourselves, for if you resist him and turn to Me, you will receive theflow of My light of love which will completely disable him. For he is unableto endure love. And one day, when his time has come, love will conquer himtoo. Satan truly constantly endeavours to captivate, to eternally dominate,everything that had emerged through his will but nevertheless with Mystrength. And therefore he will put extreme pressure on those he fears tolose, who get away from him of their own free will, who strive towards Mein order to be forever united with Me. (25.5.1951) He will spare no meansto influence these souls, he will cause confusion wherever possible. He willalways be present where My Own congregate, he will try to enter theirthoughts in order to transfer his will onto them, even though he realisesthat he has lost control over these souls.

21

Nevertheless, he opposes Me as an enemy, for his immense ambitiondeludes him into believing that his power cannot be broken. He indeedrecognises love as the weapon that will injure him and therefore he takesflight where it confronts him and stirs up unkindness at the first opportu-ni . He feels his power waning and yet will not let himself be conquered.For this reason his activi is usually instantly recognisable, because hismethod is always such that it will cause enmi between people who likeeach other, so that confusion arises where clari used to be; and the fault isalways due to people themselves that their minor unkindness lends Satan afinger and he tries to take the whole hand, that is, he spurs people into evergreater heartlessness. He has great power but only where it is granted tohim .... because you humans do not use the weapon against him which willrender him powerless .... because you do not practice love sufficiently ....because your selfish love is still predominant, which offers him a welcomeopportuni . You do not recognise him when he crosses you path, youare short-sighted and you consider him your friend and trust him. He isnot your friend as long as he is still My adversary .... and he remains Myadversary as long as he is without love. He has to be feared as long as youare without love yourselves, for in that case you belong to him and are stillvery distant from Me. But if your spark of love has been kindled in youthen you will loosen the bond yourselves, then you will change your Lord,you will unite with Me and then he will have lost all power over you.

erefore you, who became My Own due to your will which strives towardsMe and rejects him, need not fear him. en he cannot harm you anymore,yet you can still help him by gathering glowing embers onto his head, byextending your love even to those who are hostile to you, by responding toevil with love, because then he will have to recognise that you have deifiedyourselves, that you stand above him in brightest light and immeasurablestrength. For when a being surpasses him he will feel its power and he willalso set it mentally free, i.e. it will no longer be pressurised by him, becausein uni with Me it is unattainable for him. All people are able to travelthe path to the Father's heart, and the restraints which keep them boundcan be loosened by all people with love, which is the means of releaseand unification at the same time, which turns you into My children, whowill eternally experience the Father's reciprocated love and therefore be

22

eternally happy ....Amen

BD 5825 received 13.12.1953

No one will enter the kingdom of heaven who pays homage to the world ....

To pay tribute to the world is to forfeit the kingdom of heaven, since thehuman being cannot gain both at the same time. And anyone who payshomage to the world will not endeavour to attain the heavenly kingdomeither, for he will only recognise the earthly world and its attraction and notbelieve in a kingdom beyond this world. And yet the path to the kingdomof heaven has to be taken through this earthly world, it cannot be avoided,for the human being lives in this world, he has to cover the last stage ofhis development on earth, in midst of the realm which belongs to God'sadversary. But he can overcome this kingdom, he can pass through theearthly world without allowing himself to be extraordinarily impressed byit, without coveting it with his senses .... he can experience it and yet be itsmaster ....

And it is your task to overcome the world, for it was given to you as a meansfor your soul to become fully mature therein, to detach itself voluntarilyfrom everything pertaining to the world, because this separation is at thesame time also a separation from the one who is lord of this world, and aturning-towards the spiritual kingdom and its Lord.

Hence it is understandable that anyone enslaving himself to the world willnever be able to take possession of the spiritual kingdom, neither in earthlylife nor a er the human being's death .... it is understandable that the lordof the world will keep him tied up because the human being gives him theright to do so himself, for the separation from his power, the separationfrom the material world, has to be endeavoured and accomplished by theindividual himself.

He has to wage battle against himself; he has to be able to go without inorder to gain something valuable, he has to resist all temptations duringhis short lifetime on earth in order to then take possession of the spiritualkingdom with all its glories, which will compensate him thousand fold for

23

his renunciation on earth .... And he will only do so if he recognises theirrelevance and impermanence of what he deems desirable on earth. Onlythis realisation will give him the strength to change his will correctly, andhe can gain this realisation by merely contemplating the material world.... For he cannot be forced to change his will .... he can only be promptedby experiences into inner contemplation, at which point the result is upto him. And God can only help him by time and again demonstrating thefleeing nature of things, that He allows the destruction of what the humanbeing loves on earth, that He intervenes by affecting him painfully, takingfrom him what his heart is set on .... just to point out to him how worthlessthe goals of his endeavours are.

But those who learn from such experiences can consider themselves fortu-nate, for they will gradually change the direction of their will and relinquishthe world in order to occupy the spiritual kingdom one day .... But no oneshould believe that he can make compromises, no one should believe thathe can pay homage to the world with impuni .... All striving will havean effect a er his death, and if it related to the world then it will result inspiritual death, then he will have relinquished the spiritual kingdom forthe sake of earthly gain and the world will have brought him death .... enhe will have handed himself over again to the power of the one in the abyss,and the path of ascent will yet again take an infinitely long period of time....

Amen

BD 5243 received 27.10.1951

Forgiveness ....Atonement ....Justice ....(Law of cause and effect)

I Am a God of love and mercy yet justice is also part of My Being, otherwiseMy perfection could be questioned and therefore also My Divini . Doyou understand what I Am trying to say? .... at I incorporate everycharacteristic to the highest degree, and therefore everything is effectivelysubject to the law of eternal order, whose originator I Am Myself, that is,

24

out of My very perfection I have created irrevocable laws .... us everyguilt of sin has to be removed, every sin has to be atoned to satis Myjustice. But how does this relate to My love and mercy, which is so infinitelyprofound that it would like to remit every sinners'guilt? ....

My love found a way .... Love Itself wiped out the guilt of sins by makingthe atonement Itself in order to satis justice .... A human being acceptedthe guilt and made amends for all of humani 's sins. I Myself did not stopthis man, for He was motivated by love and love may never be preventedif it wants to express itself. I would never have accepted the substitutedatonement had it not been offered to Me on account of love, or the lawof eternal order would have been violated, since justice would not havebeen upheld, whereas an act of love had to be accepted by Me since I couldnot reject love. us a human being atoned humani 's immense guiltof sin through an extremely agonising pain and death on the cross. isperson was without sin and nevertheless suffered unspeakably for the guiltof others .... because He wanted to appease Me with His sacrifice, whichoverwhelming love caused Him to make. And I accepted the sacrifice,and for the sake of His love erased the guilt that had burdened all ofhumani .... which thus means that people who fully and consciously availthemselves of the sacrifice by the human being Jesus can become free fromall guilt, who lay their burden of sin at His feet and for the sake of Hiscrucifixion ask for forgiveness ....

Acknowledgement and the conscious confession of sins are necessary inorder to find complete forgiveness of sins. e sacrifice of the human beingJesus was so immense and His love for humani so powerful that Myjustice was served and My love and mercy could emerge .... us peoplewho acknowledge the divine Redeemer Jesus Christ and repentantly stepunder His cross are free from all guilt .... which means that all sins theywere burdened with are forgiven .... Forgiveness of sin, however, meanssettlement, a complete deletion of what actually should have been done ....Forgiveness means erasing, unburdening, restoring the condition prior tocommitting the sin .... and every consequence of transgression is carried bythe person who accepts the guilt. us Jesus Christ took upon Himself allsins and offered the atonement for them to Me. Every result of sin will benegated by Him ....

25

My love and mercy make everything right again, and can do so now becausethe sacrifice on the cross satisfied justice first, thus it was not by-passed. esacrifice on the cross was effectively the consequence of all of humani 'ssins. All unrighteousness that is committed on earth, as well as the sin ofthe past rebellion against Me had to have an unlawful effect, therefore ithad to fall back on beings who absorbed these effects and had to suffer them.... e human being Jesus made Himself voluntarily available to absorbthe concentrated burden of sin and by way of superhuman suffering andagony diminish the effects of the sins, and through His death finally wipethem out completely. us the law was not cancelled, it was merely fulfilled.... For this reason the human being can be granted full forgiveness of sinsthrough Jesus Christ and be delivered from all guilt, for this reason My loveand mercy can rule without excluding justice. For Jesus Christ redeemedthe world from sin, because His love for humani was overwhelming andthrough this love I was fully reconciled ....

Amen

BD 5647 received 09.04.1953

`Whoever is loved by God ....'

Whoever is loved by God o en has to follow stony paths and carry burdenswhich almost crush him; but always only for his own good, for every burdenof the cross can be a blessing for him if he has the right attitude towards HimWho directs his destiny. Whoever is loved by God .... He certainly loves allof His living creations but especially those who no longer have far to go inorder to reach the final goal. He knows every human being's dispositionand thus He also knows every individual person's attitude towards his Godand Father of eterni , and He will o en treat him accordingly in order tohelp him reach the goal. And only in this way should you explain the factthat God-devoted people who clearly fulfil His will have to suffer and o enfight a difficult struggle for existence, which at times raises doubt aboutGod's benevolence and love. God knows the purpose of everything, andif only people were convinced of His love and kindness they would alsorecognise everything as divine providence and not rebel against it, they

26

would know themselves seized by God's love and patiently wait for theirdestiny to change again.

ere is truly much suffering on earth, humani is languishing under itsweight, but it does not recognise itself in need of educating and thereforeinwardly revolts against it when it should just humbly submit to it, so thatall difficulties would be taken away again and God's help would manifestitself so clearly that He could be recognised as a loving Father by everyonewho wants to recognise Him. ose who are loved by God are allowedto suffer .... ese Words find little credence, for no-one considers thatsuffering is a truly effective method of upbringing in a world where peopleonly ever strive to please their body, where God'love is not seen in situationsof adversi and sorrow. And yet it is His love which manifests itself suchthat it is beneficial for the soul. For God knows the blessing of suffering andtherefore He o en uses such means in order to keep people back from theearthly world. He would rather see them suffer than plunge into the mire ofthe world and its sin. He knows that disease and pain can result in a change,but that the world can never offer the soul spiritual success, that thereforethe world has to be disregarded first, which is indirectly assisted by God inkeeping people back from the world and its dangers through means whichseemingly lack God's love but are never harmful for the soul, unless thehuman being revolts against his destiny and invokes His adversary.

en he will be helped indeed, but in a different way than the humanbeing thinks .... he will certainly help but never without reward .... Andthis reward consists of handing the soul over to him. erefore submit toGod's will when you are affected by adversi and suffering, don't grumbleand complain, bow down to His orders and li your eyes up only to Him.And He will take the cross from you, He will make it easy for you as soonas you completely surrender yourselves to His merciful guidance. For youcan always know yourselves loved by Him, Who through suffering andadversi only wants to win you for Himself, Who wants to puri your souland time and again provides it with the opportuni to practise patienceand gentleness, so that God's help will then visibly arrive, so that His lovewill visibly intervene and also heal all wounds when the time is right ....

Amen

27

BD 3697 received 25.02.1946

Human commandments ....Neighbourly love ....God's commandment ....

Human commandments cannot further your soul's maturi because Iassess a person's will to live in a way that pleases Me, by applying the com-mandments which I gave to him in wise recognition of their effectiveness.If human commandments conform to My commandment of love, that is,if they merely aim to inspire the human being to love, so that abiding bythem will result in the practice of unselfish love for other people, then theyalso meet My approval, because the working of My spirit in people whoinitiated such commandments is evident. However, any other command-ment is of no value before Me nor do I take any notice of its fulfilmentbecause you should use the whole flow of life-energy for deeds of love inorder to achieve maturi of soul on earth. Your goal should be to becomeperfect .... But how can you become perfect without love? ....

How can you expect a flow of mercy by observing commandments whosefailure of fulfilment is an offence against love? Your love for your fellowhuman beings demonstrates your love for Me, your God and Father ofeterni . Anyone lacking love for his fellow human beings also lacks theright kind of love for Me, which would urge him to do neighbourly deeds oflove. If you pretend that you, with love for Me, observe the commandmentswhich demand various external actions, I will not acknowledge such lovesince they are mere formalities which you observe to secure yourselvesrewards promised by people .... ey are not actions of love by which aloneyou demonstrate your hearts'love to Me, by which alone you can becomeblessed. All external formalities, everything recognisable on the surfacehas not Mine, but human will as its originator .... Only unselfish love forother people pleases Me, although this, too, necessitates external deeds ....I do not expect you to pretend to do something out of love for Me if itis not based on My commandment of love. I only want the fulfilment ofthis commandment and sincere prayer as the expression of a will devotedto Me .... Only then can you gain privileges of mercy and strength, forthere are no other means of grace than prayer and unselfish love .... In that

28

case, however, you will receive in abundance. Your entire life should bean internal one without pretentiousness, yet outwardly you should declareMe; you should confess My teaching, which you must endeavour to follow;you should openly admit to the world your faith in Me, in My name andMy act of Salvation, that is, you should speak to your fellow human beingsso that they know your thoughts and that your aspirations do not relate tothe physical world but to the spiritual realm ....

You should prove yourselves as my followers, as My rightful children,whose way of life corresponds to the requirements which I have placed uponyou and continue to place upon you with My Word, which is transmittedfrom above to those mediators who shall reveal My will to you .... If youwant to live in accordance with My will then your actions have to becontinuous labours of love by which I will later judge you in eterni ....and not external gestures and actions which are of no benefit to your soulbut which rather make the human being careless in observing the onlyimportant commandment .... to love selflessly ....

Amen

BD 5605 received 18.02.1953

Awakening the dead through God's Word ....

You shall awaken the dead to life .... you shall draw the lifeless from theabyss and breathe life into it; you shall touch it with a strength that will givelife to it .... And this strength is My Word which comes to you from above,which I convey to you Myself, so that you, as mediators, will pass it on inorder that My strength will also touch those who are still dead in spirit.You own something exquisite, a gi that has a miraculous effect, you ownspiritual strength and can use it to bring the dead back into life. But havingreceived it from the Eternal Love you must also impart My Word with love;your will to help must urge you to share what had awakened yourselvesto life .... en you will always be successful and able to work beneficiallyon earth as well as in the spiritual kingdom. ere is immense darknesseverywhere and countless spiritually dead souls dwell in this darkness. Butlife also means light ....

29

Only the soul that is touched by a ray of light which radiates warmth oflove and thus has an invigorating effect on the hardened soul will awakento life. ese dead souls have to be touched by a light of love, then they willawaken to life for sure. And you shall take this ray of light to them by givingthem My Word, which has a most comforting effect on them if it is offeredwith love. is healing water of life constantly flows to as a result of My loveand grace so that your souls will recover and find the true life, and thus youneed not fear the death of the soul any longer .... Yet the many souls whichrest in their graves .... which in their thoughts are still living on earth andyet are spiritually dead and in depressing darkness .... are surrounding you,and you should help them by li ing them out of the night of death into thelight of life. For you have an effective remedy, you have the only medicinewhich can help them, you have My Word, the emanation of strength andlight of Myself, which will never remain ineffective if only it can touch thesoul ....

As long as My Word is merely reaching a person's ear it cannot as yet affectthe soul, for only the soul is receptive to the effect of My Word. Yet only lovewill open the door so that I Myself can touch the soul with the strength ofMy love. And your love will open the door for Me if you endeavour to helpthese dead souls and proclaim to them My Word with love. Consider howmuch power is given to you: You are able to awaken the dead to life withMy Word .... And if you are only urged by love to spread My Word I willbless your efforts .... Carry the Word into the darkness wherever it may be.... look a er all those who are dead in spirit, remember your lifeless fellowhuman beings as well as the dead in the beyond .... want them to awakento life and bring My Word to them with love .... And the strength of MyWord will work miracles, the souls will awaken to life and light, and theywill never ever lose their life again ....

Amen

30

BD 5102 received 09.04.1951

School of the spirit ....

You all have to complete the school of the spirit if you want to attain theeternal right to dwell in the spiritual kingdom as blissful spiritual beingspermeated by light, who are able to create with might and strength inharmony with My will.

is school of the spirit is your earthly existence, which frequently is anunbearably heavy burden for you indeed, but which then can also resultin greater success if you only strive with good will towards your spiritualperfection and do not allow the tribulations of life to depress you, if youdo not regard earthly life as an end in itself but as a means to an end.You always have to remember that the period of time you live on earthas self-aware beings is but short, but that this short phase is decisive foreterni .

Bear in mind that you are expected to make the free decision of will duringthis short time on earth, and that you are only able to make this decision ifyou are influenced by two sides and one side becomes victorious over you.... is, understandably, will require a struggle which you yourselves haveto settle as human beings. us, your spiritual perfection is entirely in yourown hands but it will be supported by Me in every way, even if it is notobvious to you. A er all, I want to win you over and not lose you .... Hence,you also have to be convinced that I will shape every human being's fatesuch that he will be able to reach his goal, his spiritual perfection on earth,if his will makes the right choice. And therefore I also know the dangers hecould succumb to and will avert them from him as far as possible which,however, does not exclude the possibili that he can nevertheless succumbto them by virtue of his free will.

But his destiny is always appropriate to further his highest possible per-fection .... Earthly life is but a short episode, and even if it entails a mostarduous destiny his suffering will not offset the beatitude which he cancreate for himself with correct use of his will. I do not deliberately abandonany of My living creations to their fate, I will always and forever look a ereach one, for I want the school of the spirit to be successful .... And if the

31

person is always (consciously) mindful that nothing happens or is permit-ted without My will, which always aims to achieve spiritual success, thenhe will also always have the opportuni to enter into mental contact withMe to favourably dispose My will towards him, since I Am a Father to allMy living creations, Who lovingly tends to His children if only a silent callreaches His ear, an appeal for help in spiritual or even earthly hardship....

You are truly not alone .... Someone Who loves you is with you and onlywants what is best for you .... Why do you not call on Him and confide yourproblems to Him? Do not allow earthly adversi to deter you from Me butallow it to push you towards Me, then it will truly no longer burden you somuch, for I will help you carry the cross that destiny has placed upon youin accordance with My wise decision and in awareness of what serves yourspiritual perfection ....

en the silent submission to My will is already your correctly undertakendecision of will, then you will no longer be opposing Me but you will haverelinquished your resistance to Me and acknowledged Me .... en you willhave completed the school of the spirit with utmost success and your endon earth will be an easy one ....

Amen

BD 7494 received 04.01.1960

Love is life itself ....

Only in love will you find true life ..... Love awakens you into life, and lovemaintains your life forever .... For he who lives in love lives in Me and Iin him, and since I Am Love Itself and the Life of Eterni , everything thatloves must also be alive .... My fundamental nature has to be in everyonewho practises love .... You will have escaped death forever once love hasawakened you to life, for then you will also have escaped the one whobrought death into the world because of his heartlessness. Anyone whohas love is also alive .... Life, however, is constant use of My strength, life isconstantly requesting this strength and using it in accordance with My will.

us no human being who loves and is therefore alive can be inactive anylonger, for he will always use the strength permeating him in line with My

32

will, which is also his will, because love and life always signi union withMe .... And therefore it is possible for the human being to attain his soul'sfull life on earth already if he makes an effort to live in love, if he uniteswith Me and constantly receives strength from Me, which then also reveals`life'.... a state of constant blissful activi .

is person will never ever need to fear death again for he has overcome it,even if the person seems weak and incapable of earthly activi in the eyesof the world, but his soul is no longer constrained, it is free and can workand create in freedom which, however, will always have a greater spiritualeffect than an earthly one, for this relates to the true life .... Life on earth cannevertheless be a state of death if it only describes the body's degree of life,which can decline on any day so that the state of death will then overcomebody and soul and life will be eternally lost. It is the life of the soul whichshould be taken care of, and this happens purely through a life of lovewhich provides the soul with strength and thus endows it with true life thatlasts eternally. Love alone provides you with such life, and your soul will behappy to have emerged from the state of death into the state of life, where itthen can and will be constantly active because the steady influx of strengthno longer allows for further inactivi or immobili , because it works andis effective in My will and this work consists of helping those souls tosalvation who are still in the state of death and, due to their weakness,require help. is work is accomplished by the soul even if the body isoblivious of it, for it carries out its own activi which is independent of thebody but which will not let a soul rest once it has come alive through love.Only love is true life ....

If, however, you work for My kingdom you will not lack love either, and youneed only ever try to increase your strength, you need only ever practiselove so that ever more strength will permeate you and then you will beable to work consciously and unconsciously for the benefit of the soulswho suffer hardship because they have not yet found the true life. All workcarried out by you on such souls are indications that you have found lifeyourselves, and every such effort will also be blessed, for life brings forthnew life again, and what you save from eternal death will bear witness ofyou and your life, for you would be unable to do anything if you had notfound life already through the union with Me and My constant influx of

33

strength into you .... You are alive and will live forever .... And you willwork in accordance with My will and therein find your own bliss while stillon earth and also in the spiritual kingdom ....

Amen

BD 6547 received 15.05.1956

Mere conformists will be unsuccessful ....

You will be unable to demonstrate any noteworthy success at the end ofyour earthly life if you have travelled the broad road, if you have joinedother travellers without first having asked where the path of the massesis leading to .... For then you will be mere conformists who believe thatthey can shi their responsibili onto other people, onto those who leadthe crowds. Each individual person will come upon crossroads during hislife on earth, and each time some of his companions will turn off, andthen the human being will have to decide for himself which direction hewants to take .... For as long as he merely remains a conformist for the restof his life he will have gained nothing for the salvation of his soul. isis why church organisations can never guarantee that their members willreach beatitude, for this has to be pursued and attained by every personhimself, and although he can indeed be appropriately instructed everyperson nevertheless has to do the work of improving his soul himself ....that is, everyone will then have to take his own path of ascent.

It is a big mistake for a person to think that he can pass the responsibilifor his soul on to alleged leaders, to only ever comply with the requests ofthese leaders and to believe that this is `conscious psychological work'....And it is an even bigger mistake to believe that people should not scrutinisethese leaders'requests, that they should unconditionally accept or believeeverything that those in authori portray as truth .... And even if it is thetruth, every human being should form his own opinion of it, for only thenwill he be able to recognise when error creeps in and guard against it. Butanyone who entirely relies on what definitely must be scrutinised shouldnot assume that his omission will be excused, he should not assume thathe can transfer his blame onto those who have guided him wrongly, foreveryone can see the paths branching off and can take these just as easily

34

as the trodden one, but he always needs to ask himself where the differentpaths will lead to and then make a conscious choice.

However, anyone who keeps his eyes to the ground and thoughtlesslyfollows the crowds can miss the crossroads, and then it will be his fault aswell, for he is supposed to be watchful himself, he is not meant to walkblindly since he was given the gi of sight .... And he is supposed to think,because this is why he was given intellect, which he should use for attaininghis salvation. And you also should know that the path of the masses willnever be the right path .... For the masses are led by God's adversary andthe truth will never be found there. If only you humans would bear in mindthat the adversary dominates on earth and that far more people belong tohim than to God .... If only people's wickedness, heartlessness and spirituallow level would make you realise much power he has over the human race.... en, if you were seriously striving to reach your salvation, you wouldnot move with the crowds, you would separate yourselves and find a pathwhich leads in a different direction .... You would pay attention to themessengers who lead the way with a light in order to illuminate the path.... you would not be satisfied; you would think for yourselves and becomeever more enlightened.

Shake off your indifference where it concerns your souls'salvation .... Don'tlet others take care of you for your soul is your own responsibili , of whichno one can relieve you. Try to contact God Himself, choose Him as yourLeader, liberate yourselves from those who want to be His representativeson earth, for His true representatives will only ever advise you to establishyour own connection with God, but false representatives want to relieveyou of your responsibili and just demand blind obedience from you andthe fulfilment of their own commandments .... If you want to attain blissthen you will have to take the paths which lead to beatitude yourselves;you have to appeal to God to show you the right paths and to give you thestrength to take them, even if they lead uphill .... And God will also sendthe right guides to meet you, He will draw you to Himself, and you willsafely reach the right goal ....

Amen

35

BD 7496 received 07.01.1960

Jesus as leader ....

Where is your path leading to if you have not chosen Me as your leader? ....is is what you should ask yourselves time and again and desire nothing

other than My becoming your leader, to Whom you can entrust yourselvesand safely walk by His hand through earthly life. And truly, you will alwaysbe led correctly, you will not take wrong paths and distance yourselves fromthe goal, you will always take the right paths by which you can reach theheavenly kingdom, for then you will be travelling the path to the Father'shouse, to your eternal home. But you have to request My leadership .... Iwon't impose Myself on you, I will not try to influence you against your willto take or avoid these or those paths .... I want to be asked to be your leaderalways and everywhere .... I want you to appeal to Me that I should guideand lead you across all uneven paths, and I want you to entrust yourselvesto My guidance without resistance, that you will follow Me on the pathwhich I precede in order to guide you to the eternal home. For only onepath is leading to it, which is steep and requires exertion, it necessitatesstrength, a firm staff and support for your safe passage ....

Just let Me always be your leader and you will soon be incapable of goingwrong, you will not need to worry that the path will lead you astray orbecome impassable for you and your failing strength .... If I precede you,you can follow without worry, for I know the best way to the goal, and Iwill truly shorten the path for you, clear it of all obstructions, carry youacross all obstacles and always take you by the hand so that you will reachthe goal safely and without harm. But you have to entrust yourselves to Mewithout reservation, you must not hesitate or fear to be guided wrongly,for you will never be able to find a better leader than Me in earthly life,regardless of how many loyal friends you find amongst your fellow humanbeings, but they nevertheless don't all know the path of ascent which leadsto Me .... And this is why you should always just keep to Me, but then don'tworry any longer, for once you entrust yourselves to Me I will reward yourconfidence and take you into My protective care on your earthly course oflife. And you will barely notice your progress, for walking next to Me alsomeans receiving My strength, being able to hold you by My hand and thus

36

effortlessly covering the ascent, on account of which you live on earth. Forthis path has to lead upwards. As long as you walk on even ground, yourpath is not the right one, since your goal is up above and accordingly italso requires strength, which you can always receive from Me if you havechosen Me as your leader for your earthly course of life.

Yet this life is hard if you walk alone or give My adversary the right tojoin you, who will know only too well how to embellish the path and fillit with temptations, so that you won't notice that it does not lead upwardbut into the abyss .... en you will be in great danger, for you will prolongyour path of return to Me or make it entirely impossible, for I cannot befound below, and the path that is leading through lovely meadows, whichis easy and travelled by the children of the world, is not leading to Me butinevitably into the abyss, from where it is incredibly difficult to ascend andwill take an endlessly long period of time again. Nevertheless, you have tochoose the leader yourselves; you need only ask Me to assume guidanceover your earthly life, and I will be with you and displace the other one,when you wants to join you. For if you call upon Me as your leader you willalso be relieved from all responsibili , then I will act on your behalf anddirect and lead you on the right paths, so that you will safely reach yourgoal: that you will return to Me in your true home, that you will enter intoyour Father's house where I Am waiting for you in order to unite with youagain for all eterni ....

Amen

BD 8865 received 10.10.1964

Comforting Fatherly Words ....

If only you trusted Me wholeheartedly then nothing in your earthly lifewould be able to worry you, because your destiny is in My hands anddepending on your trust in Me I can give you what you need. Little faith,however, prevents Me from considering you in a way I would like ....

erefore you should let everything approach you and not do anything ofyour own will, for especially you who want to be of service to Me can restassured that I will smooth your every path if only you always commendyourselves to My love and grace, for truly, all means are at My disposal and

37

I guide your destiny such that it will benefit you and the vineyard workyou shall still carry out for Me. A er all, it should be obvious to you thatI Myself wouldn't want you to disrupt the work .... You can imagine thatnothing is unknown to Me that will help you, and therefore you will alsobe led wherever and however My will decides. And I will make the decisioneasy for you, for all of you will be of one mind. And then you will also knowthat I Am involved, that you should hold on to My hand and believe that Iwill keep helping you .... For I still want a great deal of work to be done andyou should place your efforts at My disposal for it involves exposing furthererrors and confronting them, which you can only do with My support ....

And thus I also need loyal servants who, on the one hand, are willing toaccept the spiritual knowledge, and on the other to distribute it, for thespiritual crisis is getting increasingly worse and people are in urgent needof explanations, because they instinctively reject the misguided teachingsand, alongside these, also the right ones and are therefore lacking all faith.... And the fact that I need you for this service should already suffice tomake My care of you and your earthly requirements understandable toyou. For one day you will find out how richly blessed this work of yours hasbeen, even though it does not compel but leaves every individual personfree to believe. Yet your work is visible as rays of light in the beyond, thuseveryone following the light can come to realise the truth, and there arenot just a few who help themselves to strength and light, even if it seems toyou that your effort on earth is o en in vain. And therefore believe that Iguide My servants on earth through all dangers of body and soul and nevertake My hand away from them, and only wish you to hold on and faithfullyplace your trust in Me .... en every problem, every unpleasant situationwill resolve itself so self-evidently that you will only ever recognise theobvious protection of My kind Fatherly hand which does not allow you tobe harmed. And the more you trust Me the more evident will also be Myhelp, which then will be without limitation ....

Amen

38

Who was Bertha Dudde?

Bertha Dudde was born on 1. April 1891, as the second oldest daughterof a painter, in Liegnitz, Silesia. She became a dressmaker and began toreceive pronouncements from God through the `Inner Word'on 15. June1937.

“In a clear dream I was moved to write down my thoughts a er devoutprayer. Understandably this o en gave way to doubt and inner conflictsuntil I was convinced that I was, myself, by no means the initiator of theseexquisitely gracious words; but instead it was the spirit within me, in otherwords, the love of the Heavenly Father was obviously responsible for themand introduced me to the truth”.

“I was given knowledge of the spiritual world which far exceeded myelementary school education. I received and receive this knowledge as adictation in a state of complete consciousness; I write down everything I amtold in shorthand, in order to then transfer it word for word to clean copy.

e procedure does not take place in a state of compulsion, for example ina state of trance or ecstasy, but in an absolutely level-headed frame of mind.However, I have to want it to happen and then I can receive these dictationsvoluntarily; they are neither bound by time nor place.

“Now I only have one wish, which is to be able to make these gi s of graceaccessible to many more people and in accordance with the will of GodHimself to be allowed to do much more work in His vineyard.”

(Quotations from an autobiography from 1959).

Bertha Dudde died on 18. September 1965 in Leverkusen, Germany.

39